PROMETHEUS BOUND. 39

and his dynasty came to the throne of heaven. Jove
was snpposed to have obtained his position by con-
spiracy against his father Saturn—an impiety in some
sort justifiable, because Saturn had dispossessed his
father Uranus by means not less outrageous. It is a
curious question, What could have led the Greeks to
rest the claims of their gods on such foundations'?—but
we cannot enter upon it here. Jove was aided, of
course, in his enterprise, by the gods who, when he
had succeeded, found places by his side; and Prome-
theus, at the first, was one of these. He had always
been a pitying friend to the human race, and his
mother Themis, or Eight, had encouraged him in the
hope that the reign of Jove would be beneficial to
mankind. His name, Prometheus, means "forethought,"
and in his love of men is implied the lesson that fore-
thought is the source of all human happiness. Hoping,
then, to confer a blessing on mankind, he had helped
to raise Zeus to power, at the expense of the old gods,
and the Titans, his kindred; but he was disappointed at
the result. Zeus entirely neglected mankind, or even
sought to depress them more and more, till he should
have put an end to the race altogether. To remedy
their sad state, Prometheus carried down from heaven
by stealth some sparks of fire concealed in a stalk of
fennel, that men might learn to forge tools and instru-
ments, and so arts and wealth might arise upon the earth.
But to use this element of fire had been the special pre-
rogative of the gods, and they would not have an
inferior race strengthened by it; fearing, perhaps, lest,
so equipped, mankind might aspire to supplant them